31 Days of Halloween - Day 21

Painted Monsters & Other Strange Beasts by Orrin Grey

Word Horde. 2015.


Orrin Grey should be a familiar name to followers of the Countdown to Halloween since he has been an active participant for several years now. Painted Monsters contains thirteen short stories most of which begin with old horror tropes, particularly cinematic ones. Grey then gives these tropes very new, clever, spins while often dropping nods to their inspirations. Lovecraft, Poe, John Carpenter, Clive Barker, Roger Corman, and others all have their fingerprints laying under the fresh paint. These are not pastiches, however. These are original works with their own dark secrets, and are all worth reading, particularly Persistence of Vision which is ripe with novel ideas and chilling in its scope and suggestion.